A senior State Department official said Tuesday that despite the challenges that have prevented the current administration from developing a strategic partnership with Russia, a return to negotiations for strategic stability is inevitable. Frank Rose, assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification, and compliance, said at the Wilson Center that the U.S. relationship with Russia has changed since 2009, when President Barack Obama took office. At the time, “we had hopes of developing a strategic partnership with Russia. I think those hopes are no longer there,” Rose said, attributing this change in part to Russian officials’ “increasingly harsh rhetoric with regard to nuclear policy” and what the U.S. State Department says is Russia’s violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Strategic stability would presumably involve further reductions in both countries’ nuclear weapon arsenals, something that U.S. officials consider not immediately feasible given the tension in bilateral relations.
Rose said the U.S. determined two years ago that Russia had conducted ground-launched cruise missile tests prohibited by the treaty and that the United States is still trying to bring the Russians back into compliance. He also noted that over the last 25 years, U.S. defense strategy has reduced the role of nuclear weapons while “the exact opposite has been the case for Russia.” Rose said this is due to Russia’s challenging strategic situation. “They have few, if any, allies,” and their conventional capabilities “are not on par with the United States or our allies,” he said. Meanwhile, Russia is “losing several hundred thousand people a year in population” and does not have a “modern, 21st century economy.”
“Given that strategic situation, what do they have to maintain their security? I would argue, nuclear weapons,” Rose said, concluding that “despite all the challenges in our relationship, at some point we will come back to the table and talk about strategic stability with Russia.”
Russia will not participate in the Obama administration’s final Nuclear Security Summit this week in Washington, D.C., citing action plans under development for international organizations as guidelines that would impose the views of certain states on global bodies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency. Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said Tuesday on a White House press call with reporters that the Kremlin’s decision to withdraw “is a missed opportunity for Russia, above all.” Noting that Russia “benefited in the past” through U.S.-Russian nuclear security efforts, Rhodes said, “Frankly all they’re doing is isolating themselves.”
